Revenge for Hire (The Get Even Agency)

by Lynn, Janice

  The day after? The bastard.

  “Figures.”

  “Don’t you want to know who?”

  “No.” She didn’t. Just the thought of Jude touching another woman, loving another woman drove ice picks into her chest. How could he?

  Because he’s a low-lying devious snake. That’s why she’d done what she’d done to begin with.

  If she could fully convince herself of that maybe she’d quit thinking of him all the time.

  She turned her back to Cassidy and pulled off her tank top. She needed a shower to wash away Jerry’s nasty scent. His heavy cologne still made her eyes water.

  It was the cologne doing that. Nothing more.

  Certainly not thoughts of Jude with another woman.

  “Mandy Sims.”

  The name scraped her heart with the impact of shard glass.

  She crossed her arms over her bosom and faced Cassidy. “You can’t be serious.”

  “He took her out that Saturday evening and spent a lot of time at her apartment on Sunday.”

  Avery paced across the small bathroom. “How do you know this?”

  Cassidy grinned. “Let’s just say Randi and I decided Jude bore watching for a while longer.”

  “You’ve had him followed?”

  Cassidy grinned. “Since he was escorted from Playhouse on Friday morning.”

  Avery didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  “You dogs,” she accused, playfully tossing a towel at her friend. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Let’s see. One, you said you didn’t ever want to hear the name Jude Layman again.” Cassidy ticked off her fingers. “Two, you said if I dared mention his name again you were going to use my Nair on me. Three, you said if…”

  “Okay, I get the picture.” She glanced at the steaming water. “Let me take a shower then you are going to tell me everything.”

  Cassidy smiled a bit wickedly. “Need me to wash your hair?”

  Avery’s eyes went to the hotel shampoo. The seal wasn’t broken. “No thanks.”

  Cassidy laughed, flipped her hair over her shoulder in a pretend huff, and closed the door.

  Avery finished stripping her clothes and slipped into the shower. The hot water sluiced over her skin, washing away the stench of the evening. Another job well done.

  Another scorned woman avenged.

  Jerry would go straight from the emergency room to where he deserved to be, jail. The agency set right another wrong.

  Avery shampooed her hair, cracked open the conditioner bottle, and massaged the white cream into her hair. She sighed and gave in to the thought pressing her. Jude.

  So much for loving her. He’d already moved on with Mandy Sims.

  Ugh. She hadn’t liked the woman before. Now, an emotion akin to hatred ran through her. An emotion she didn’t like.

  Avery knew that from time-to-time women got back together with the men who they’d hired to have revenged. Occasionally a wife didn’t leave at all but hired the agency to appease her wounded pride.

  Mandy Sims’ case was different. What had the woman wanted? Revenge on Jude for breaking her heart and taking a job that should’ve been hers to begin with according to the woman. Since she’d read online articles saying Mandy Sims had been named the new editor-in-chief of Playhouse Avery assumed the woman’s claim was true.

  The witch had taken Jude back. Had he gone crawling to her thinking she would help him regain his job? Or had he discovered he cared for the Miss December when he hit rock bottom? Sometimes it took losing everything to realize what you’d had. Was that how it happened with Jude?

  Was that what happened with her?

  She closed her eyes and tilted her head back into the steamy spray. Droplets of water ran down her face while she rinsed the almond scented conditioner from her hair.

  Never did she bathe that thoughts of showering with Jude didn’t enter her mind. Thoughts of his golden chest glistening, thoughts of his thorough wash of her body, her sudsy exploration of his.

  She finished washing quickly and turned off the water.

  Toweling dry, she snuggled into a terry cloth robe and twisted her wet hair up with a towel. She went into the room and plopped down on the bed opposite Cassidy.

  Payback Puss lazily stared.

  “Tell me everything,” she demanded.

  Cassidy set her notebook down and met Avery’s gaze. “Jude’s been trying to find you.”

  After Cassidy’s earlier revelation about Jude’s quick rebound that shocked her. “How do you know?”

  Why would he be trying to find her if he was dating Mandy?

  “The private investigator says he’s come by our apartment building every single day at different times and hangs out around the entrance. He’s still harassing the doormen. The P.I. wanted to know if Randi wanted him arrested.”

  Avery winced. “She didn’t?”

  “If she wanted him to go to jail, he’d have been in jail during the job.”

  True.

  “What did she say?”

  “Just to keep letting her know what he was up to. He’s not looking for a job yet, but two magazines have contacted him. He’s not met with either.” Cassidy ran a finger over Payback Puss. “Randi thinks he’s holding out to get his job back at Playhouse.”

  “Is that a possibility?” Even as she asked, she knew.

  “It is with him banging the owner’s daughter.”

  Avery couldn’t quite hold back her wince. Was Cassidy speaking with authority or assuming that Jude was having sex with Mandy? Oh, who was she kidding? Of course he was. No vow prevented him from doing exactly what he wanted. Exactly who he wanted. Mandy. “The daughter who cost him the job to begin with,” Avery mused, acid gurgling in her stomach.

  “Exactly.”

  Avery stared at the ceiling. “He acted as if he couldn’t stand her at the Yamaguchi’s party.”

  “Men don’t have to like a woman to sleep with her. He’s probably just using her. It’s what men do.” Cassidy looked thoughtful, lost somewhere in the past.

  Avery took a deep breath. Odds were Cassidy was right. Jude was a player of the worst kind. He played the game and he believed Mandy could help get his life back. Perhaps she could.

  “His accounts?”

  Cassidy blinked, then she quasi-shrugged. “Randi released access to his credit cards the Monday following our departure. His bank account is still under lock down.”

  “His apartment?”

  “No more pest problems.” Cassidy smiled. “The media has moved on to harassing that professional basketball player who crashed into a building while under the influence. I can make a call to get Jude’s name splashed over the papers again if you want.”

  Avery grimaced. “No. His job is finished. No more revenge for hire stuff. I’ll have Randi free up his bank account first thing when we get home tomorrow.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s time.”

  “For?”

  “For me to completely put Jude behind me.”

  “Haven’t you already?”

  Avery stared at Cassidy through slitted eyelids. “What do you think?”

  “That you love him.”

  Avery fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “Love? You asked me what it was and I didn’t know how to answer you.” She bit the inside of her lower lip. “Is dreaming about someone every time you close your eyes love? Is thinking about him first thing when you wake? Last thing before you sleep? Or looking at the sky and thinking it the exact color as his eyes?”

  Cassidy crossed over to lie on the bed beside her, took Avery’s hand and pulled it to her chest in a comforting hold.

  “Or maybe love is when the thought that you’ll never see him again hurts so badly that you’d do almost anything to ease that hurt despite the fact he’s an arrogant, lying jerk.”

  “You could see him again,” Cassidy suggested softly.

  “It would never work. Besides, he’s sleeping with Ma
ndy.” Her voice broke. “How could he do that after telling me he loved me?” She twisted her head to look at Cassidy. “I know it’s insane but this crazy, hopeful part of me believed him when he said he loved me.” A tear trickled out of the corner of her eye. “I’m such a fool. I wanted his words to be true.”

  Cassidy squeezed her hand. “How do you know they’re not?”

  Avery snorted. “Hello, you just told me that he’s spending his nights with Blow-up Barbie.”

  “Do you think it’s possible he figured out Mandy had something to do with all this?”

  “Anything’s possible,” Avery admitted. “He’s an intelligent man, and she didn’t come across as the brightest star in the sky.”

  “Maybe you should give him the chance to choose for himself who he wants to be with.”

  Avery frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Look.” Cassidy rolled onto her side. “You’ve been miserable since we left New York. You love him, and there’s a chance he loves you, too. Why aren’t you in New York fighting for him if he’s what you want?”

  “I’m TGEA. A relationship would never work.”

  “Hello.” Cassidy snapped her fingers in front of Avery’s face. “Listen to what you just said. We are TGEA, The Get Even Agency. We can do anything we set our minds to, can have anything we want. If you want a relationship with Jude, what’s to stop you other than yourself?”

  “And what would I tell him I do for a living? We’re not exactly the Girl Scouts.”

  “Tell him the truth.”

  “That I’ve been known to get paid to seduce a man back to a hotel room?”

  “Well, maybe not that truth.”

  “That I got paid to rip his life apart?”

  “Maybe not that truth either.”

  “Face it, Cass. None of us can ever tell any man what we do for a living. To do so would be risking the agency, risking our lives. No man is worth that risk.”

  “Fine. Go to him. If he’s discovered that you weren’t really sent by a temp agency, tell him our temp agency sent you. Holly will cover for you, and at least then you’ll know.”

  “What will I know?”

  “Whether or not he’s worth the risk.”

  “I’ve already told you—”

  “I know what you told me with your mouth. However, I was listening to what your eyes were saying.” Cassidy gave a small smile. “There’s nothing in our agreement that says we can’t decide a guy deserves a second chance, you know.”

  A second chance. She snorted at the enormity of what her going to Jude would mean.

  Fear gripped her that had nothing to do with the risks to TGEA. Very simply, the thought that Jude would tell her he couldn’t love a woman who would do such atrocious things to him on purpose terrified.

  That he might say he couldn’t love a woman who would bail on him when his world crumbled around him.

  That he might say he’d only used her for sex because she was unlovable.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, fought the demons clawing at her insides.

  Would Jude give her a second chance?

  Because when he found out that she was behind the collapse of his life, he wasn’t going to be happy.

  Nor did she feel right going to him while his chips were down.

  * * *

  Jude kissed the center of Mandy’s palm. She shivered, moaned, begged him to kiss her more as she arched back against the soft leather sofa.

  Damn it. When was she going to tell him what he wanted to know? He’d been kissing her behind for two weeks. She tossed out just enough for him to know she knew what he wanted to know. He also knew she was behind what happened to him on what he’d dubbed Black Friday. Not the thirteenth but damn close enough.

  “I got a call from Hustled magazine today,” he whispered against her wrist, paying close attention to how her pulse sped up at his words. “They want me to work for them.”

  “Are you planning to take them up on the offer?”

  “Sooner or later I have to go back to work.”

  “You could come back to Playhouse.”

  Jude snorted, then suckled against her pounding pulse. “Simon would never allow it. Not after I sold secrets to Hustled.”

  Mandy wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her barely covered breasts against his chest. “I’ll talk to him. Tell him you didn’t do it.”

  “He’ll never believe you.”

  “Come on, love. We both know you’d never sell secrets.” She laughed against his lips. “Your honor would never let you.”

  Interesting that Mandy would believe in his honor and Simon had been so quick to doubt. Then again, Mandy knew the truth. “Which means someone else at Playhouse did.”

  “Now there’s the beauty of it,” she smiled. “It doesn’t mean that at all. Just that it looks like someone, you, sold secrets.”

  No actual secrets were sold? Did she realize what she’d just admitted?

  “Doesn’t matter.” He kissed her as if he loved her, as if he were kissing an angel. An angel before he realized she hailed from hell. “He’d never have me back, and I’d never work for Simon after he failed to believe in my so-called honor.”

  Mandy’s eyes grew big with excitement. “Let’s get married. Then Daddy will forgive you, beg you to come back to the magazine, and you’ll have the perfect excuse to accept.”

  Not in a million years.

  Now there was the beauty of it, his mind mimicked her earlier words. He didn’t have to marry Mandy, but if she thought he was going to it might give him the opportunity to nail her behind to the wall and a certain temp’s right along with it.

  “Why would you want that?” he asked, cautiously. “I thought you liked heading up Playhouse.”

  “I do, but we could run the magazine together. You and me, husband and wife, business partners.” She wiggled against him. “It would be perfect, love.”

  Perfect.

  He forced a grin to his face and stared lazily into her eyes. “What’s in it for me?”

  “Me.” She giggled, wiggling more. “A job. Your life back.”

  His life back. If he regained his job, his reputation, his pride, his money, he wouldn’t say his life was back. His life had disappeared with an angel who wasn’t really so divine.

  She had to have been working for the devil he held. Which meant she’d knowingly used him, set him up, slept with him to gain access to his apartment to steal the documents—unless she’d stolen them the night he’d had his allergic reaction. Had she fed him the shrimp dip intentionally? Hell, she’d almost killed him. His angel was a devil in disguise.

  Yet he ached for her. For revenge he kept telling himself, but, regardless, he ached.

  “That thought turns you on, doesn’t it?” Mandy ground her hips against his jeans. “No need to answer, I can tell.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be turned on? I have a beautiful woman in my arms who’s wealthy, connected, and just proposed to me.” All of which made him want to puke, but he knew Mandy would only see what she wanted to see on his face. He’d play his cards right, the only cards he had to play, and he’d find the truth and Angela.

  Then he’d have his vengeance against both the women who’d screwed him over.

  Mandy clasped her hands together. “Your answer is yes?”

  He smiled indulgently at her, wondering if this would be what pushed her into slipping to say something more useful. “We’ll go to Tiffany’s tomorrow to pick out your ring.”

  “Oh,” she squealed with delight. She pulled away, jumped from the sofa. “This calls for a celebration.” She spun around in delight. “We’ll go out to Conrad’s and…”

  She kept babbling but Jude phased it out. He didn’t want to listen to who hung out at Conrad’s and who would be wearing what designer gown and who would—

  “What did you just say?” he interrupted her non-stop chatter.

  She giggled, rolled her eyes “Men! I said it would give me a chance to we
ar my latest Claire Davis.”

  Claire Davis. The designer of the gown Angel wore to the Yamaguchi’s party.

  “Didn’t you say her gowns were one of a kind?”

  Mandy held a gown up to her. “Oh yes. No two Claire Davis gowns are exactly alike so there’s never a worry about showing up at a party and someone else wearing the same gown.”

  “She’s that exclusive then?”

  Mandy laughed at his fashion ignorance. “She’s to die for and almost impossible to hire. I’ve got two Claire Davis’s and am on the waiting list for a third.”

  A waiting list? To buy a dress? Jude liked to look nice, but that was ridiculous. However, for tracking down the owner of a particular green dress it sounded promising.

  “It’s a fair bet this Claire Davis would know who she’s sold her gowns to?” he asked the question cautiously, hoping Mandy didn’t catch on to why he asked.

  “Absolutely. She keeps meticulous records on all her gowns, including a photo inventory.” Mandy sighed, in mock sympathy. “There are so many imposters that she has to help protect her reputation.”

  She kept a photo inventory of her creations? Jackpot.

  He glanced at his watch. What kind of hours did a fashion designer keep?

  And how was he going to get away from Mandy?

  “Can you tell me how to get in touch with her?”

  Mandy’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  Her eyes widened, and she danced around, her man-made jugs bouncing beneath the skimpy blouse she wore. “You’re going to ask her to design my wedding dress, aren’t you? Oh my gosh! Jude that is so perfect. I’ll be the envy of everyone.”

  Huh?

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “If she has that waiting list, I should go ahead and contact her. Otherwise, we might have to wait months and months before our big day.”

  Or more like an eternity because that’s how long Mandy would have to wait before he’d stand at the end of an aisle waiting for her.

  “Good idea.” Mandy pulled the gown back to her and spun. “This is so perfect. That agency was the best money I ever spent.”

  That agency? Jude honed in on her words. “What agency would that be?” he asked, purposely keeping his voice even.

  Mandy’s expression clamped down, and he knew he had her. She’d finally tripped up.